


Watch Me Fall

by MoragMacPherson



Series: Home Is Where I Want To Be (But I Guess I'm Already There) [4]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Bodhi's other true love is sleep, Fluff, Gen or Pre-Slash, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-05
Updated: 2017-02-05
Packaged: 2018-09-22 03:04:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9579635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoragMacPherson/pseuds/MoragMacPherson
Summary: Luke's new bunkmate, Bodhi Rook, has an interesting relationship with sleep





	

**Author's Note:**

> A fluffy little prequel for the series, set immediately after A New Hope, inspired by this [moodboard](https://barricadebakesale.tumblr.com/post/156815896776/bodhi-rook-napping-requested-by-gillevo). Beta'd by Kage_Nightray

One of the first things that Luke learns about his bunkmate, after his name and claim to fame as the pilot of Rogue One, Luke's own squad's namesake, is that Bodhi Rook has a very… interesting relationship with sleep. They're initially quartered together through a fluke of Aurebesh and time of enlistment during the evacuation of Yavin IV, and the third time Luke ever sees Bodhi he's unconscious, standing in front of the closet, with his head pressed into the hanging sets of coveralls. Luke, half-thinking it must be some kind of joke, clears his throat loudly. When this fails to elicit a response, Luke tentatively taps on one protruding shoulder blade. "Are you okay, Bodhi?"

Bodhi flinches and tips forward, only barely managing to keep himself from falling flat on his face. By the time he's pulled himself out of the locker, Luke has managed to tamp down the laughter which might have sent the wrong message to his new not-quite-friend. "I'm fine," says Bodhi, his goggles defying gravity to remain perched on the very back of his head. He doesn't look awake enough to be embarrassed. "I didn't know if you preferred the top or bottom bunk, and I didn't want to presume," he says, finishing with a yawn.

Sensing a potential trend emerging, Luke steps aside and extends an arm. "Take the bottom bunk, please," says Luke. Bodhi looks so grateful that Luke has to bite back another laugh. They've spent fewer than ten minutes in each other's company and Luke's already all too fond of Bodhi, though that's been a trend in Luke's life lately.

The next evening Luke is confronted in the mess by Baze Malbus, who has an unconscious Bodhi slung over his shoulder. "He mentioned that you were quartered together," says Baze, as though this is an explanation.

"Uh, yes. I can show you the way," says Luke, finishing his blue milk. "Uh, is he okay?" he asks, technically leading but having to work a bit to keep up with Baze's strides.

"Seems fine to me, he was meditating with Chirrut and found a little too much inner peace," says Baze.

"It's just, all the trauma you guys faced on Scarif, could it be a medical thing?" asks Luke. Baze grunts noncommittally. Mercifully, their room isn't far.

"I think he just really likes sleep," says Baze finally as he hefts Bodhi onto his bunk looking down on the sleeping man with amused fondness on his face. "My shoulder is not exactly a cradle," he adds in a whisper. Once they're outside, he lets Luke know that Chirrut had wanted Bodhi to extend an invitation to join their evening meditation. Luke is more than happy to accept the chance to learn even if Chirrut isn't technically a Jedi. More often than not, after the meditation sessions Luke gets to walk back to their rooms with Bodhi over Baze's shoulder.

Luke much prefers those nights to the nights when Bodhi doesn't make it to meditation. Without meditation, Bodhi is prone to nightmares, vicious things that wrack his body with whimpers. Luke wakes him from it the first time it happens and asks him what he'd been dreaming of. "My home turned into a storm cloud of black dust and fire," says Bodhi. He looks so embarrassed to have been caught having such feelings rather than relieved to no longer be reliving them that Luke can't bring himself to disturb him again. During nightmare nights Luke struggles to sleep himself, Bodhi's pain apparently causing enough distress to send out dark ripples in the Force around him.  
  
"Would you like to be reassigned to officer quarters?" asks the Quartermaster on Thila when Luke receives his commission as a Lieutenant. Luke thinks of Bodhi's nightmares, his embarrassment, and of evening conversations with Baze. Without hesitation, he tells the Quartermaster that he's fine with the current arrangement.

Luke isn't always the better person. Bodhi falls asleep while helping Han rebuild the _Falcon's_ sublight engines with his head dangling out of the engine compartment. When Luke comes back from a training flight, Han is quietly threading an armful of wildflowers into the strap of Bodhi's goggles. "What are you doing?" Luke asks Han, setting down his flight helmet.

"He volunteered to help and then dozed off about half an hour ago. I can't get in there to finish things until he wakes up," Han says.

"You could move him," says Luke.

"But he looks so peaceful," says Han with half a smile, adding another blossom while Bodhi lets out a soft snore.

"Even more so, now," says Luke, a grin creeping across his face as he plucks a flower from Han's bunch to wind it around Bodhi's ear. By the time Kaytoo finds them, Bodhi has a full and lustrous crown.  
  
Kaytoo acts somewhat affronted but still agrees to take a holo for them. "I should move him," says Kaytoo afterwards, prying Bodhi out of the space with his characteristic lack of gentleness. Bodhi sputters awake while Kaytoo is still holding him almost half a meter off the ground by the back of his coveralls. "Humans are meant to sleep in beds, not engine compartments," Kaytoo tells him.

"Um, yes, thank you," says Bodhi as Kaytoo sets him down. His cheek twitches when the bloom Luke had put behind his ear slips and tickles his cheek. "What the?" he says with a yawn, pulling the flower out then looking at it, completely confused. Luke doesn't find it quite as funny any more, until Bodhi raises his hands to his head, gently pats at the flower-crown, then smiles to himself before climbing back up into the engine compartment.

"You okay there, buddy?" asks Han.

"Just fine, thank you," says Bodhi, getting back to work. "Flowers are much preferable to mess hall utensils. They even smell kind of nice." He slants a glance at Han with a sly grin. "Or did you think you were the first to have this idea?"

Han huffs out a laugh and pats Bodhi on the head. "You're a couple different kinds of all right, kid," he says, before heading back into the _Falcon_. Luke lingers by Bodhi.

"Have you always been like this?" Luke asks.

Bodhi hums an affirmation. "Since I was a little boy accidentally pulling down my mother's skirts in the market. This is nowhere near as troublesome," says Bodhi.

Luke frowns, "Yeah, sorry—" he begins but is interrupted by Bodhi's clucking tongue.

"It's fine, really. The fact that this was your best idea to prank me means that you probably sort of like me," says Bodhi.

"It was Han's idea, actually," says Luke.

For a moment Bodhi looks almost hurt. "Oh."

"But it's the worst I'd ever do to you, when you're, you know, like that," says Luke quickly, grabbing a fallen flower off the hangar floor to replace it behind Bodhi's ear. Bodhi smiles and _blushes_ when Luke does this, which makes Luke grin again and gives him an odd feeling in his stomach. Almost like possessiveness, but that doesn't make sense.

"It's a lucky thing I got you as my bunkmate, then," says Bodhi after a moment that feels too long yet not long enough. Luke's hand is still right by Bodhi's face, he realizes, and he has to quash the impulse to run his fingers through Bodhi's hair.

"All is as the Force wills it," says Luke, lowering his hand.

"I have nothing to fear," Bodhi dutifully recites, and maybe Luke's imagines it, but he thinks Bodhi twists his head just a little to smile down at Luke, and oh, Luke hadn't realized he wanted that to be true.

"No," says Luke, stepping away for now. "Nothing to fear," he agrees.


End file.
